COVID-19 and your mental health
If you’re reading this – at the risk of sounding like your breathing app – I want you to take a deep breath. Inhale for 3 seconds, exhale for 4. Then take a moment to consider that you’re alive. You’re still breathing, you’re still functioning, and hopefully giving yourself some self-care (treating yourself to a magazine that has been compiled with love).
More importantly, you’ve managed to survive the majority of the devastating, multiple-waved tsunami that we’ve been calling 2020. All in all, that says something for your resilience. Since the beginning of the year, we’ve experienced the environmental tragedy of wildfires in Australia and Brazil, we’re still in the midst of a global pandemic, and we’re dealing with economic pressure paired with massive job losses, not to mention systemic racial conflict, both locally and overseas.
To say this year hasn’t been particularly kind to our mental health is an understatement, and the statistics seem to agree. During the national lockdown, 55% of respondents to an online survey conducted by the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) said they experienced anxiety and panic. 44% said they were under financial pressure and stress, while 40% said depression was their main challenge. Further elements that
